The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted Radiant Industries’ 10 CFR Part 70 license application for its R-50 microreactor production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and will launch an expedited review that it is aiming to complete within eight months.

According to NRC documents, the agency expects to complete its review of the license application by December 18, 2026. The timeline is described as “accelerated” in the NRC announcement—about 55 percent faster than the typical 18 months for Part 70 application reviews.

On Wednesday, Idaho National Laboratory announced that the National Reactor Innovation Center’s Demonstration of Microreactor Experiments (DOME) test bed is now “open for business.”

With DOME’s opening, microreactor developers will soon be able to test, demonstrate, and validate their reactor designs. Rian Bahran, the Department of Energy’s deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors, called this “essential infrastructure” a “testament to our commitment to a robust nuclear future” and a key tool for “accelerating the development and deployment” of new energy technologies.

California-based microreactor developer Radiant Industries has announced the signing of what it calls “the first-ever agreement” to deliver a mass-manufactured nuclear microreactor to a U.S. military base. The contract was signed with the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the U.S. Air Force as part of the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program.

Radiant Industries announced on June 4 that the safety design strategy (SDS) for a test of its Kaleidos microreactor in the National Reactor Innovation Center’s DOME test bed at Idaho National Laboratory now has approval from the Department of Energy. Radiant hopes to test Kaleidos—a 1-MW high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor—by 2026 and then market portable commercial reactors to power remote locations and provide backup or primary power for critical applications in hospitals or for disaster relief.